Sample of literary figures
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Jackson Brodie
Male
He is a middle-aged divorced detective, former soldier and police officer, born in Yorkshire but living in London despite the fact that he has never liked southern England. So he is happy to travel north, and some of Kate Atkinson’s novels about him are set in Scotland. Jackson Brodie’s strength as a detective does not lie in logical reasoning, but in his empathy with the afflicted: the victims of crime and their loved ones.
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Rebecca Normén
Female
The well-educated Rebecca Normén works – in a trilogy of novels by Anders de la Motte – in part for the bodyguard section of the security service, but also with helping her little brother Henrik Pettersson who has got into great difficulties and is hunted by the police, and others. She is around 35 years old, and is attractive with dark eyes, distinct cheekbones and a little nose. She cares a lot about her private life, and avoids permanent partners.
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Barbara Havers
Female
Contrary to many other female police officers in crime fiction Barbara Havers is not a good-looking woman. Her creator, Elizabeth George, claims she made her deliberately unattractive and unkempt. Havers has cooperation issues and she is moody, stubborn and temperamental. Yet she has a functional working relationship with her complete opposite, the well bred, neatly turned out Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley.
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Francis Hancock
Male
His father was an Englishman, his mother from India. Francis Hancock himself is a funeral director in London during the Second World War, when the Germans bombed the city. His experiences during the First World War, when he was a soldier, have given him mental problems. He is very withdrawn, which doesn’t, however, prevent him from being a clever – albeit reluctant – amateur detective in a suite of books by Barbara Nadel.